GOP goal: Resurrect ANWR drilling

As if dreamed by George A. Romero, Republicans are resurrecting the idea to allow oil drilling in a limited portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

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The fight is about more than the 11 billion barrels of oil estimated to rest under the coastal plain in northern Alaska. It’s a symbolic thumb in the eye to Democrats and environmentalists for whom, on this issue, there can be no compromise.

To be sure, ANWR has been touted as the policy solution for every oil price spike over the past 20 years. And while Republican efforts to open the area to drilling failed in 1995 and 2005, GOP lawmakers are ready to try again.

The new variables: Political unrest in the Middle East has U.S. crude prices higher than $106 per barrel, and GOP lawmakers can look to some big wins on drilling policy in the past couple of years that previously would have been considered unthinkable.

“If the issue is we can’t do it in the Gulf — i.e., because it’s in water — isn’t the next logical place ANWR, which has been around a number of times?” Hastings asked last week.

“We know this president has said he’s not going to sign it, but we may have different phenomena out there, like $4-plus gasoline. It’s not in water; it’s on dry land. I mean, the components come together if you want to look at domestic exploration,” he said.

House Republicans most likely have the votes to pass any bill that expands oil drilling in ANWR or offshore, especially because several Republican moderates who opposed it in the past decade are no longer serving. But, as with everything on the Hill, the Senate is the major question mark.

“I think it’s all going to come down to whether there’s enough Democrats to support it,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.). “I think you could pass it in the House. You could get north of 50 in the Senate. But the question is, can you get to 60?”

That depends, Thune said, “on how much people perceive a sense of urgency. If this situation continues to escalate and what happens in the Middle East starts to reflect in the price per barrel of oil and gas prices here at home, who knows? There may be Democrats who soften on that.”

The last major ANWR vote was in 2005, when the late Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), wearing his famous “Incredible Hulk” tie reserved for the biggest congressional battles, successfully got the 51 Senate votes to include it in budget reconciliation legislation. But the measure unexpectedly died when House GOP leaders faced a mutiny among moderates in their party.

Ten years earlier, in 1995, President Bill Clinton vetoed a GOP budget initiative that included ANWR drilling.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the Alaska Republican who took up the mantle from Stevens, counts the differences between current and previous efforts.

“Have we had that debate when the price of oil has been $100 a barrel? Have we had that debate when people are paying more than they’re willing to pay? Have we had that debate when we’re struggling to get through a recession? And every dollar of discretionary income that is taken out to pay to fill up your tank hurts us?” Murkowski asked.